'Brokeback Mountain' Director Reminisces About Heath Ledger's 'Naturally Caring' Love for Michelle Williams That Was Evident From the Beginning

Brokeback Mountain hit theaters 16 years ago, but Heath Ledger’s love for Michelle Williams is still something director Ang Lee thinks about. He watched their romance develop before they even shot the first scene of the film.

Williams had a knee injury before they went into production and Lee recalled to Empire magazine that “Heath was always looking after her.” The Oscar winner added, “He was so naturally caring towards Michelle.” It wasn’t just Lee who noticed the late actor falling head over heels in love, so did screenwriter Diana Ossana, who remembered how Ledger just melted at the sight of his soon-to-be girlfriend. 

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“She’d twisted her knee, and we had to call someone to take her to the hospital. Heath was not about to let her go alone, and as he was getting into the vehicle with her, he was smoothing her hair back,” Ossana shared with OUT magazine. “He was so taken with her. I remember him looking at her, and she is looking up at him with these wide eyes. She was almost startled by the attention he was giving her, but you could see it every day from thereon. For him, it was truly love at first sight.”

The couple broke up in 2007, about a year before his drug overdose death in 2008, but they amicably co-parented their daughter Matilda. Williams rarely talks about Ledger in public, she gave a rare interview in 2018 to Vanity Fair about how she keeps her daughter’s father alive in spirit. “I never gave up on love,” she said tenderly. “I always say to Matilda, ‘Your dad loved me before anybody thought I was talented, or pretty, or had nice clothes.” It was a true love story with a very sad ending.

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